UN: Europe allows the landing of 507 people rescued at sea

Migrants, landings in the Salento and in the Trapani area. Tenth day at sea for Open Arms

Migrants, Richard Gere: "Salvini doesn't interest me, I help people"

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August 13, 2019The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) calls on European governments to allow the immediate disembarkation of 507 people currently stuck in the sea on board the Open Arms and Ocean Viking ships, after being rescued recently in the central Mediterranean. Many of them, a note reads, would have survived terrible abuses in Libya, and come from countries that produce a high number of refugees. They need humanitarian assistance and some people have already expressed a willingness to apply for international protection.

"This is a race against time," said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean. "Thunderstorms are expected, and conditions will only worsen. Leaving people who have fled the conflict and the violence in Libya on the high seas would mean inflicting further suffering. They must be allowed to disembark immediately, and they must be able to receive the humanitarian assistance they urgently need ".

Open Arms: every day is harder, shame silence Europe "Twelve days at sea. An oncoming disturbance. The situation is getting more and more difficult." Why don't they make us get off? "We don't know how to answer anymore. And Europe is silent. A silence that screams the shame of our time". The Ong Open Arms wrote it on Twitter.

Interior Ministry: Libya offers safe haven to Ocean Viking Libya has indicated a safe haven for Ocean Viking, the ship of Sos Mediterranee and MSF that has more than 350 migrants on board rescued in recent days. According to sources from the Viminale stressing that the indication given this morning to the crew by the Libyan Coast Guard is to land migrants in Tripoli. The same ship, the ministry sources add, had asked Libya in the past few days for the availability of the Pos. The references and contacts in Tripoli were also communicated to Ocean Viking to organize the landing.

Salvini: at work to avoid landing 500 migrants "To work at the ministry this morning to avoid the landing of over 500 migrants on board the ships of two NGOs, one French and one Spanish". The deputy premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini wrote this by posting a photo from his office at the Interior Ministry on Facebook. The minister's reference is to the 150 migrants aboard the Open Arms from 12 days and the 350 on board the Ocean Viking, rescued in four different interventions.